The Chinese continued to drink tea for the medicinal and energizing effects that Emperor Shen Nung had discovered. Sometime in the Period of Disunity (AD220-589), the Chinese invented a process or remove some of the bitterness of brewed tea.
Tea drinking was very much a hobby of the social elite until the Jin Dynasty (AD265-420). During that time, there were already commercial tea plantations in certain provinces, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Human, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang.
In 593 Buddhism and tea journey from China to Japan. Japanese priests studying in China carried tea seeds and leaves back.
In 780 First tea tax imposed in China. Chinese poet-scholar Lu Yu writes the first book of tea titled Ch’a Ching (The Classic of Tea) in timely alignment with the Taoist beliefs. The book covers detailed ancient Chinese tea cultivation and preparation techniques.
By the time the Song Dynasty began (AD960-1279), tea was well integrated into Chinese and Japanese culture.
In 1597 tea is mentioned for the first time in an English translation of Dutch navigator Jan Hugo van Linschooten's travels, in which he refers to tea as chaa. It appears as "Chai Catai'(Tea of China) in the book 'Delle Navigatione et Viaggi (Voyages and Travels) by Giambattista Ramusio (1485-1557).
In year 1610 The Dutch bring back green tea from Japan. Dutch East India Company market tea as an exotic medicinal drink, but it’s so expensive only the aristocracy can afford the tea and its serving pieces. Peter Stuyvesant brought tea to the American colonists in New Amsterdam, later called New York in 1650. Soon the colonists were drinking more tea than all England.
Tea finally did reach England, where in 1658 it was first served and sold publicly at Thomas Garway’s well known coffeehouse in London’s Exchange Alley.
In the 1880's, America came to the forefront as the biggest importer of tea due to faster clipper ships and the ability to pay its debts in gold.
History of Tea
